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History of the Middle Road Volunteer Fire Department
The dreams and hard work of our founding fathers become reality on November 14th 1950, when the Middle Road Volunteer Fire Department received its charter and was officially incorporated in Indiana Township. The firefighters came from Indiana, Shaler, Hampton and O’Hara Townships as they still do today. Donations for the Fire Hall also came from the residents of those townships. In recent years, Allegheny County Emergency Services assigned 174 as our station number. A rodeo was held at the Calvert Farm on Middle Road to raise money to purchase land from Peter and Eva Gillner for $2,500.00 to erect the original structure. Many of our members and community volunteers worked together to build the Fire Hall. This phase of the construction project was completed in May of 1951. Up to that point, meetings were held at the member’s homes and in the school hall of St. Mary’s Glenshaw. Over the years, many additions and remodeling details occurred to accommodate our expanding needs. In February of 1952, an old air raid siren was purchased and mounted on the Fire Hall to alert the firefighters. In September of 1952, the first Monday night training began. Members saw the need to meet to review their equipment and learn new firefighting skills. To this day we continue the Monday night training/meeting tradition. Some of the first firefighting equipment was 12 “Indian” tanks that were purchased and strategically located at firefighters’ homes. A 1949 Ford Pick-up truck was our first piece of apparatus with its front mounted pump. Our first call was on October 5th 1951. Shortly thereafter, a used tank truck was purchased from the Sun Oil Company to transport water. The following is a list of the rest of our apparatus after the first two to the present day: 1954 John Bean Ford High Pressure Pumper, 1958 John Bean International 750 GPM, High Pressure Pumper, 1969 John Bean 1000 GPM High Pressure Pumper, 1972 GMC Rescue van, 1978 Seagrave 1250 GPM, High Pressure Pumper, 1980 GMC Rescue Van, 1989 Seagrave 1250 GPM Pumper, 1996 Sutphen 1500 GPM Pumper and a 1997 Ford F-350 Pickup Squad truck. On March 14, 1950 the Middle Road Volunteer Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary had their first meeting. Meetings were held in the members’ homes and each member paid 25 cents for monthly dues. The ladies began fund raising from the start. Some of their events included: selling jello and vanilla, holding bingos, raffles, card parties and they also had a blanket club. In later years, at the outdoor carnivals they held candy and bake sales and sold all types of refreshments. They worked diligently to build a kitchen at the Fire Hall so they could hold dinners, which turned into a poplar fundraiser. They donated money to the Fire Hall on an annual basis. While they no longer exist, their efforts were very instrumental in the formation and operation of the Department. In 1974, due to staffing and response time issues of the volunteer ambulances in the area, the 1972 GMC van was converted to one of the first Quick Response Service in the area. Members were Emergency Medical Responders, Emergency Medical Technicians, and Paramedics. This service continued into 2017 when it was discontinued due to the proliferation of the paid ambulance services. Fundraising has been a necessary tradition at the Fire Department. Our members have worked very hard over the years to keep the department financially stable. All types of events have been held over the years such as: Outdoor Carnivals, Pork and Sauerkraut Dinners, Pasta Dinners, Hole in One Contests, Night at the Races, Las Vegas Nights, Bingos, Ham and Turkey Shoots, Hall Rentals, Gun Raffles, Cell Tower Land Lease, Annual Donation Drive and our current Dream Raffle which happens twice a year. We currently receive funding from the residents of Indiana Township in the form of a .48 mill fire tax to help cover some of the operating expenses. In 2012 the 61-year-old “Fire Hall” that had served us well was replaced by a new station at a cost of 1.3 million dollars. The siren that alerted the firefighters was silenced at that time, as all members are alerted by pagers and mobile phones. The old “Fire Hall” was demolished in 2014. |